To the Victor
by Shadow over Egypt
Summary: Mai...really hated it when her mother decided to get involved in her life again. The terrible suitors, the horrible clothes...the giant killer fish at the party just topped everything off. #oneshot, Conquestshipping, Mai x Valon#


**Shadow: **Conquestshipping (Mai Valentine x Valon) for Compy's contest, the first of the 'medium' rounds.

**_Notes: _**Blatant squintings of another het pairing, and rather um…well, an established shonen-ai side-pairing. (But I'm not telling you which. X3)

* * *

**To the Victor**

It began with a phone-call, as many things seem apt to do in life. Or at least, in Mai's conscious, it began with the phone-call. Naturally, there was a beginning before that, as all beginnings hold yet more beginnings where the dream of a wish of the very first timid root of an account first peeks out its tentative tendrils for display. Everything begins somewhere as everything must, and the problem lies in picking the best beginning to suit the tale. It's difficult sometimes, to pick the point of foundation – so let's go with Mai's interpretation.

Mai blamed her mother.

"…Mai dear, don't think it's about time you started thinking about settling down?"

Mrs. Susanna Valentine – _ever _the socialite -, fluting voice sounding the mental death knell down the phone line.

"You're twenty-five now, darling; time does favours for none of us, and you really ought to think about utilising that pretty face of yours before it wilts away."

Mai, gripping her mobile so hard it was a wonder the delicate little gadget didn't turn into so many bits of expensive shards in her hand (because the company had assured her it was a sturdy model, and could withstand maybe the occasional stiletto to the screen, but nothing was totally woman-proof), gritted her teeth and forced herself not to scream. When dealing with mothers screaming was bad – _very _bad – as mothers were difficult and capricious and deeply, _deeply _hypocritical, as they'd scream at you for screaming and then scold.

(Mai, like the sane, sensible little girl her parents had brought her up to be, disliked scolding.)

And so – somehow or other, whilst she was occupied not-screaming and gritting her teeth to the point where she thought she'd best schedule an appointment with her dentist -, Mai was talked into returning to her parents' house for a _party._

("One of those annual things, darling. You know?"

Mai knew. She didn't like them.

Susanna Valentine was as subtle as brick.)

Mai liked the feel of the wind in her hair and so often rode in her convertible with the roof down, blonde curls catching the elements rather attractively as she sped down the roads winding back to her first house (never a home). She got pulled over once, for speeding, but flashed her smile, artistically arranged her bosom and pulled vague ideas out for display about her (nonexistent) sister being in labour and really needing her to be there for the birth.

(She didn't get a ticket.)

And so she pulled up in front of the family residence, parked her car in an obviously awkward place right in front of the front doors, and breezed on in to meet and greet her parents face-to-face for the first time in four years, still windblown from the ride.

It inevitably broke down into a weird mixture of an argument and a lecture.

(Mai quickly remembered why she'd always tried to stick to phone-calls.)

* * *

At heart, Mai Valentine always had, and always would be, an extremely materialistic person. Not that she was shallow, exactly – life, and a certain merry world-saving crew – had given Mai perspective, warm depth to go with her outward glamour, but –

Well, they said diamonds were a girl's best friend, and Mai wasn't about to disagree.

The jeweller knew Mai's mother (Susanna did like to shop), knew of Mai's background and breeding and approved heartily of it all the way. The Valentines had money; the Valentines had class, and the Valentine women were extremely easy on the eye when they strolled on in to your exclusive establishment in a skirt only a few centimetres past being dubbed a belt.

"Mai!" A voice strangely familiar to Mai yelled out from behind her as she entered the jewellers, loud tones ringing little bells all over her mind but failing to make the connection until –

"_Valon!" _It clicked, but only after she saw the face blurred by movement, the jeweller's security staff having already stepped in and knocked the brazen brunet to the floor for attempting to assault a valued customer. "Wait!" Mai cried out to the guards when they looked as though they were going to haul the male up and manhandle him out of the door. "I know him!"

The security staff looked at each other doubtfully, but drifted away again.

Valon, Valon, _Valon_. A sweet guy who'd tried to help her before, albeit it in a slightly misguided way – not that she really blamed him for it. A friendly face, a literal blast from the past, and not an unpleasant one.

(Mai's chest filled with warmth at the sight of him, though she blamed the random surge of happiness on the items she'd already bought for herself that day. Retail-therapy always worked.)

Valon looked up from his position on the floor, and gave the approaching blonde a brief, weak wave. "Mai, hi."

Mai leaned over, so she could have a better view of the sprawled male, a sudden, impish thought striking her.

(An annual party of the Valentines, a regular gathering said Susanna? What was wrong, then, with inviting an old and dear friend?)

Mai smiled, eyes positively glittering. "Valon…do you have a suit?"

* * *

There were benefits to coming from a wealthy family – the Valentines were holding their 'party' on their private boat, floating in the Pacific ocean for the weekend. It was all to kick off that night, as they welcomed people onboard and launched straight into a glitzy mingling of the 'upper-crust'.

"Darling," Susanna Valentine was sitting on the couch in her private quarters, fixing a new pair of earrings in her ears, "I invited a few friends of yours to come along tonight."

"Oh?" Mai, standing a few metres away from her, felt a spark of curiosity. Had her mother finally got over her eternal snobbery-?

"That nice Kaiba boy – I had to have an argument with his secretary for a good half hour, mind you, but _really _I thought it best you have someone here you felt a little more comfortable with." (Comfortable? With _Kaiba?) _"He'd make a nice…'date', wouldn't he, dear? I mean he's handsome, and…refined and…"

Mai folded her arms across her chest. "Mother, you mean he's rich."

"Only one of his many charms, I have no doubt."

"_You _only invited him because of his wealth." Susanna looked affronted, but she didn't deny the accusation. "…I give up."

Mai's mother went back to her jewellery, changing the subject. "Your father said he'd bought you something to wear tonight…" She gestured vaguely out of her quarters, no doubt in the direction of Mai's. "He said he'd had it left on your bed."

Mai resisted the urge to outwardly blanch. Her father's taste in female clothes…well, it'd been brilliant when Mai had been ten, but about the time she turned twelve she was already dreading what new horrors her father could inflict upon her in his failing attempt to replace the human emotion he never showed her with clothes.

To her credit, Mai managed to repress her shudders long enough to try on the items her father had bought her, standing before the full-length mirror in her room and wincing at the ever-so-pretty blue-and-white dress that draped her form rather unflatteringly, the whole ensemble topped with a black hair-band.

…Looking in the mirror, all Mai could see was _Alice. _Daddy's little princess, whom daddy had never spoken to, could he help it. Rapunzel, sealed up in a tower by her negligent, idiotic parents.

"Mai, darling!" Susanna, aware somewhat of her husband's ineptitude in the fashion department, had come to check upon her one and only child – and was suitably aghast. "You can't go out in that! You look like you're twelve!"

(So Mai and her mother finally agreed upon something.)

Susanna's idea, however, wasn't much better. She pulled out one of Mai's skimpier outfits, hassling the younger woman into it before pulling at the laces at the back to the point where Mai could barely breathe. She then left, pleased with her handiwork.

Mai, looking in the mirror once more, frowned, and automatically began undoing the laces so she wouldn't keel over on the floor from oxygen deprivation. She looked like a slut, something she was _not _aiming for in a situation where her mother was no doubt going to attempt and hook her up with any wealthy man going who didn't already have a ring upon his finger.

…Mai trashed both outfits selected for her by her parents, and chose her own.

* * *

Social dinners were always _so _much fun.

(Not.)

There were on the boat, having met and greeted the guests, and now they were sitting down at the main table to eat and make stilted, stultifying conversation because that was simply what people _did _at these parties. Susanna, a few seats up from her daughter, had deliberately sat Mai next to two 'charming young men', all with the hopes of getting the blonde to show some interest. Mai had originally planned to sit Mai next to Kaiba Seto (Mai had seen and grimaced at the seating arrangements) but –

Well, Mrs. Valentine had _not _been very impressed when Kaiba had swept up to the boat with a date already in tow.

Susanna didn't seem to realise the brunet's presence was a wonder in and of itself, too busy shooting glares at the poor girl at Kaiba's side. Mai would've went over to speak to Kaiba and his 'plus one', but her mother had skilfully manoeuvred Mai away from any males already taken and dumped her in with the overeager, single lot.

Mai twirled her fork inelegantly, not caring she was being disrespectful to the twittering child at her side trying vainly to get her attention. She wanted very much to stab her mother with the cutlery, but forced herself away from murderous intent to glance up the table at Kaiba's companion.

The nameless girl – Mai hesitated slightly to use the term 'woman' due to the other's generally youthful countenance (or perhaps it was vague envy, women very rarely did like the companionship of potential competition when attempting to woo the somewhat more oblivious sex). The nameless girl, with dark, strangely-tinted eyes, caught Mai looking at her, glancing up over the food between them and flashing an oddly familiar half-smile the blonde's way. Restrained, polite, mildly inviting. The girl knew exactly how to behave in upper-class company.

(Mai wondered who taught her.)

She was a pretty thing, head barely reaching the height of her companion's shoulder when they were standing but still mostly all long, sleek leg. Her outfit - a short, raven-black dress the same shade as her hair – was the perfect inversion and compliment to her partner's stunning white attire, and her slightly less-than-neutral expression was (as to be expected from any – seemingly – close companion of Kaiba Seto's) just ever so slightly smug.

Mai looked away again, still searching for amusement, eyes alighting on the somewhat-bemused looking Valon who was sat as far away from Mai in the arrangements as physically possible. (Susanna had _not _been at all impressed when she discovered her daughter had invited him. Valon simply didn't have the flair – or the cash – to get in her good books.) Mai flashed him an apologetic glance when he looked up and caught her gaze, suffering through the dinner, through the gathering afterwards as she was _grabbed _by her mother and dragged bodily around the room on the boat to meet all the people Susanna believed her only child should be friends with.

(Mai began to damn whoever it was that had re-informed the woman that she actually _had _a daughter. Non-existence in Mai's mother's eyes was so much better to this…)

Later, when it was past twelve, past one, past two in the morning and the evening gathering was officially over as people drifted away to bed and sleep, Mai finally got the chance to garb hold of Valon, briskly escorting the man out onto the deck of the boat and away from Susanna's beady eyes.

To Mai's dismay, Valon was being _apologetic. _"I'm only seem to be causing trouble for you here." He was a perceptive guy, noting the Valentines' disapproval of him, and keeping out of the way to keep the greater peace.

"True," Mai admitted bluntly, blinking up at the dark night sky overhead, "but seeming is different from actuality, and you have your good points." Valon rubbed at the back of his head a little awkwardly. "Hon, I wouldn't have invited you if I didn't want you here."

"Did you invite me just to get back at your mother?" Because Mai's father, of course, had sunk back into not really caring about much at all.

"No, although that is a delightful asset to your presence." They took a seat together, in the shadow of the boat, Mai putting forward a question that had bugged her since the day before at the jeweller's. "What _were _you doing in my hometown, anyway?"

Valon looked at her blankly. "…That's your hometown?" Mai nodded. "I would've gone there sooner if I'd known."

Had his companion been another woman she might've blushed at that subtle reminder of the past, of DOMA and the blatant feelings the brunet had exposed for her but –

"Stalker." Mai settled for teasing, treading the thin line of obliviousness, like she'd always done before. Mai didn't commit.

Valon smiled dryly, wryly, noting the discreet withdrawal. Another put-down as Mai looked away, focusing on anything but him. Time was supposed to heal all hurts, but Mai was clearly still smarting, licking open wounds in the quiet she'd taken herself to.

They talked for a while, the two of them, low conversation mixed with occasional laughter, the waves lapping at the boat side in their lulls. It turned half-three, and Valon yawned, breaking off the conversation to go to bed. He blew a kiss to Mai as a parting gift as he left and the blonde smiled back at him, returning her gaze to the tiny, tiny stars so very far away.

(Was it lonely, being a star?)

Mai sighed to herself as she came around, her own eyes aching a little from tiredness, and she rose to her feet and began the trek back to her private quarters –

Only to stop short at the sight of Kaiba and his tagalong companion further out on the deck, the slight female being held loosely by the taller brunet as she leaned over the boatside to look at the waves below.

They were talking together, the woman looking up occasionally from her study of the foam to smile at Kaiba and – and it was _familiar _somehow, her smile was familiar, but – but –

Their poses spoke of ease with one another, and it was something Mai had thought she'd never see with Kaiba, and – if he could –

They looked comfortable together, _right. _Right in the way couples were, and it pained Mai a little, that she was still without that sort of company.

(Maybe Susanna had a point – not that her daughter would ever tell her that.)

Mai withdrew when she saw the other female turn around from the waves, lean up to pull Kaiba down in a smooth motion, something practiced and –

Well, Mai wasn't going to be a voyeur. She slid past the two lovers, unnoticed, and went to bed to dream restless dreams.

* * *

"You." Mai stood shock still in the boat's kitchen at ten am, having slept badly and woken early, and – and – "What are _you _doing here?"

Kaiba Seto raised one vaguely unimpressed eyebrow at her. "…Eating?" His answer was rather obvious – a plate of half-eaten toast was set before him on the kitchen table.

Mai scowled a little, and strode past him for the fridge. "The other guests use the dining room for food."

"I dislike people." Kaiba poured out some more coffee into the mug beside him, having stolen the percolator and put it within an arm's distance. (Arrogant asshole.)

"I _noticed," _Mai sniped, a little too sleep-deprived to have the manners to deal with the CEO. "You upset my mother."

"Forgive me for evading her matchmaking clutches then." Kaiba sounded perfectly insincere, raking a hand back through his already rather-tousled hair. (The man _really_ didn't care about manners when the world wasn't watching, did he?)

"You noticed that?"

"She was being blatant, and Valentine, I'm not blind."

"Good thing, I suppose," Mai groused, ramming some more bread into the toaster. Inanimate, the toaster took her abuse with an air of long-sufferance. "If I liked you, you could be a very dangerous man."

Kaiba smirked. "You don't think I'm dangerous already?"

"Not in terms of affection. My sanity, perhaps, is in question, but everything else…" The blonde paused, before downing the last of her orange juice. "You have a girlfriend anyway – did you forget the pretty thing asleep in your quarters?" She frowned when her companion chuckled. "What?"

"Aside from your naivety on interpersonal relationships…?" Kaiba only smirked wider as Mai's frown deepened. "Didn't 'the pretty thing' you speak of strike you as familiar in any way?"

Mai considered it. "Well, I kind of got the feeling I'd seen her before somewhere – is she a model or something?" Kaiba shook his head, smirk wider than ever. "It was her eyes that really got me though – they were such a strange colour. Dark, kind of black-purple, but occasionally when I glanced at her they looked almost _red -" _Realisation smacked the woman hard. Red eyes? There was alone _one _person Mai had ever even vaguely known with that shade of red that lingered in Kaiba's company and – "….She's not."

A pleasant nod from the brunet, the insufferable man taking a bite of his neglected toast. "'She' is."

"Oh, _shit._" Mai forgot her toast, bolting for the door. "Don't you know my mother sends a female maid around when she thinks only women are in the rooms to tidy? And if you've honestly got –"

An extremely loud _eek _was heard from outside.

Kaiba crunched through the last of his breakfast before following her exasperated hostess, arriving at the quarters assigned to his partner and him in time to see Mai whacking her head off the door lintel repeatedly. Glaring purple eyes looked up at the CEO as he arrived.

"I think you've both," she spoke to the brunet, and the one inside the man's room, "just successfully managed to traumatise my family maid for life."

"Oh?" Kaiba looked delightfully unbothered. "I thought she should thank us. We've widened her world perspective."

Mai frowned at the brunet, quite ignoring the lazy chuckle from the room's bed. "If I liked you," she repeated the earlier sentiments she'd shared with Kaiba in the kitchen, "I would seriously need my head checking."

"If you liked him," a soft voice spoke, strangely-accented for one claiming to be Japanese, "and you acted upon it," it was Yami, undeniably male now she could see his bare torso, the rest of the spirit draped only in the diaphanous sheets he'd pulled with him from the bed, and his coal, kohl-black hair (what had happened to the red? The blond?) "You wouldn't have a head left to be checked." The promise in his words was perfectly sincere, a beautiful match to the vaguely amused smile on his lover's face as he wrapped one arm about Yami's waist.

Mai laughed, past the point of being disturbed by the threats of fate worse than death. "I see psychosis is contagious?"

* * *

"You know," Mai said, propping her chin up with one hand as she watched the now-disguised Yami carefully butter a bread roll at the table for his breakfast, "it's really quite unfair you make such a pretty girl."

"Mai," Yami looked up from his work, "that's honestly not a compliment."

"Well, _I _thought you were a girl."

"That's the point."

"Do you dress like one often?"

Yami looked at her rather flatly, before raising his leg and gesturing to his feet. "Do you think I learned to walk in these overnight?" His heels – all four pointy inches of them – were deadly.

"But _why _do you dress like one?"

"…It…makes things simpler at public gatherings like this," the once-pharaoh said eventually, "for Seto. Publicity's important and -"

"I get it." Mai did. The great CEO of KaibaCorp, dating his rival, dating his _male _rival…the papers would have a field day. Still though, Mai was curious. "Have you and Kaiba…been an item long?" She hadn't been _that _much out of the loop to miss something so major completely surely?

(And it strung a little, that no-one had informed her, even though she'd deliberately put herself in a position where she couldn't be contacted. And it stung even more, that someone had found some way to be close to another -)

"…Long enough," Yami said, having finished buttering his roll and taking a bite. "Sometime in between ridding the world of ultimate evil, KaibaCorp paperwork and tournaments, it's been a time. The occasional few rogue Duel Monsters too," the spirit added as an afterthought. "They seem to crop up from time to time around me, much to Kaiba's disgust, and our combined irritation. Insurance doesn't cover 'act of giant monster', apparently, and the last Shadow pest trashed Seto's favourite limo."

Mai winced sympathetically. "You do strange things for romance, huh?"

The day went on. The guests milled around, the boat anchoring so some of them could go for a swim, sunbathe on the deck. Some short tempers flared up in the heat, but the first Mai had heard of it, however, was a hoarse cry and the sound of shattering glass. Kaiba, as it quickly became apparent to anyone and everyone rushing out onto the main deck, had grown weary of the many people flirting far too blatantly with the disguised Yami. The final straw had come in the form of one somewhat-balding 'gentleman' having the audacity to smack the brunet's lover's behind.

Kaiba had snapped, and in a gloriously wonderful way, grabbing the unfortunate idiot fool enough to mess with _his _boyfriend by the throat. The glass breaking had come from the gasping idiot's throat, the man dropping his wine cooler and whimpering audibly as a steel-eyed Kaiba dangled him over the side of the boat. (As he was to wail later, he couldn't _swim.)_

"_Kaiba!" _Yami's anger at the sexual harassment vanished swiftly into actual worry – if the brunet hurt the man there'd be an endless amount of trouble. "Seto, _please." _He approached the CEO tentatively, not daring to lay his hand on Kaiba for fear it would distract the other into dropping the one he was holding into the churning ocean. "Let the fool down; he's not worth the slur to your name. He's not worth the trouble."

"What trouble?" Kaiba asked a little acidly, poison glaring at the captive he held (who was keening piteously by that point, too terrified to even flail). "The only trouble I foresee this bait offering is as some indigestion for the sharks."

"Seto…" Yami put his hand down on the rail, leaning on it as he attempted to reason with his furious boyfriend – but he hissed, withdrawing his palm, a sharp edge on the rail having left a thin line of red across his skin. Blood dripped from the cut into the ocean's expanse below.

(Mai – and everyone else on-board – was to learn Yami's blood showing outside his body was constituted as a _bad thing.)_

Kaiba pulled back the one he'd been threatening at the sight of the blood, dropping the idiot on the deck with an ungainly _thump _and snatching at his lover's hand.

"Seto..." yami predictably tried to shoo the other away. "Don't…it's only a little blood."

"It's a little of _your _blood."

(And Yami was magical, wasn't he? And magic could be could, but magic could also be bad and the red drip-dripped onto the deck, and there was already blood in the water. Ordinary blood brought sharks, and magical blood, well -)

It took about five minutes for the giant swirly-purple-mass-thing to appear in the water, and by that time Kaiba had wrapped a sulky Yami's hand up. He'd just finished bandaging the cut (Yami now waving a white mitten instead of a hand in dismay) when the monster broke out of the water, green pointed head breaking the waves viciously to shower spray down upon the deck.

At the sight of the simply _humongous, _oddly-coloured (green and red) scale-covered watery flying-_thing _in the air above them, people on deck began to scream.

Kaiba looked at his lover, and Mai began doing the sensible thing and edging towards the magical duelists on board. "Why do I ever take you with me anywhere?"

"Wherever you go, I follow." Yami said, hand rather overdramatically splayed over his heart.

"And wherever _you _go, trouble follows," was the rather snappy retort from his lover, Kaiba flinging his own arm out to the giant monster overshadowing the boat. "Have you seen the _size _of that thing?!"

His companion looked disapproving. "It's only a _baby." _A baby Crazy Fish to be exact, but Yami had the feeling Kaiba knew the identity of the monster already.

"If _you _want to go out there and give it its bottle, please, be my guest." That was from Valon, the Australian having snuck over to join Mai. The former DOMA member looked at the Pharaoh. "Are you going to deal with it? Because ol' scaly up there looks _hungry."_

('Ol' scaly chose that moment to bare its pointy teeth and shriek at them. The screams onboard rose an octave, or two, or ten – about to the range, Kaiba mused to himself, that only _Wheeler_ could be expected to hear.)

Mai looked at Yami. Yami looked back, before gesturing rather dryly to his figure-hugging attire. "Do I _look _like I have room for a deck of cards on me?"

Kaiba, it turned out, had left _his _cards safely elsewhere with Mokuba (like he was taking his precious dragons on a boat to get tossed into the water?) and Mai had left her Harpies tucked away back in her luggage on-land. Valon had actually given up dueling after DOMA, judging things safer that way, and so –

Mai stared as the Crazy Fish slammed its tail down on the boat, shattering part of the rail and taking a chunk of the structure away with it. "What can are we going to _do?" _(She would've been more stressed, really she would've been, but…she was _Mai Valentine, _and nothing quite beat happy-happy-psycho-fun-time with a deranged Malik Ishtar.)

Valon, seeing the loss on his three companions' faces, took it upon himself to answer the problem. He'd been good for more things than dueling, having had a whole life before Dartz, and certainly had a few…_interesting _tricks up his sleeve.

The Fish slammed its tail down again – that was more of the boat gone – splashing them all with a massive wave of water. Through the deluge Valon suddenly strode –

(And Mai's heart suddenly went extremely weird and she tried to choke out something but it got drowned out in salt and water and…general ick.)

Valon grabbed a bottle of some spirit or other from a nearby table set out for the guests to help themselves, scrabbling in his pocket for something – _god _knew what – and –

"Is that a _lighter?" _Mai finally managed to choke something out, not caring for one minute that it was undignified to spit. She had seawater in her mouth and she was getting rid of it, social decorum be damned. (She strongly doubted the _Young Ladies Guide to Etiquette _included giant homicidal monsters in it, anyway.) "What on earth does he have a lighter f-"

The rest of the woman's words were lost, smothered when Kaiba suddenly grabbed her and Yami and yanked them sharply behind the nearest table just as –

Pure, distilled alcohol was highly combustible, and made for interesting ammo when you stuffed a rag inside and lit the end. This was Valon's weapon of choice, the few people still close enough to the brunet to see what was in his head wise enough to run for cover as soon as the lighter was produced.

Valon just lit the thing, tossed it at the irate, screeching Duel Monster, and ducked for the deck, hands over his head.

_Whoomph._

Heat _blazed _and the sky went white for a few moments, and when it cleared blackened chunks of dead sea monster were hitting the boat deck with wet _splat_s, some of the ooze hitting a few of the unlucky passengers.

Mai, fighting free of Kaiba, was out in the mess as soon as she could, trying to see Valon – Valon – _Valon –_

Valon, rising from his crouch to stand unsurely amidst the muck, was coated from head-to-foot in sea-slime, smiled brightly into the faces of the horrified socialites onboard that were slowly peeking out of their hiding places.

The Australian offered them a glob of monster-mush that had landed in his hair. "Sushi, anyone?"

Susanna Valentine, having been hidden inside one of the boat's private quarters and come out just in time to here the question, keeled over in a dead faint.

Mai didn't care, skidding across the mess on the deck to tackle Valon, shaking the man as soon as she reached him, actually _panicking. "Why did you do that?!! You could have been _killed!!_"_

"Well…yeah…but…" Valon looked awkward once more, dropping his would-be sushi.

"But _what_?" Mai demanded, his heart rate still too fast for normal. Valon had actually _scared _her – one did not take on killer Duel Monsters alone! There had to be plans, and contingency plans, and long, drawn-out weeks of plotting and –

("You do strange things for romance, huh?")

"But…" Valon said, slowly, a little quietly, "I like you?"

"You…" Mai stared, having expected the confession for some time but _still. _She was too shell-shocked to think of much though, so she hugged him, hard, thankful the wonderful idiot was still breathing. "Idiot stalker." Still avoidance, but a little less than before.

(Valon was getting there.)

Valon smiled – a little wryly, a little dryly, and hugged her back. "I'm getting dead fish on your clothes."

Mai smacked him.

* * *

**Shadow: **Because we all know Yami is incredibly pretty, and when he's not scowling, at first glance, his gender is rather hard to identify. Also, his leg to torso ratio is ridiculous. He and Kaiba have legs that go on for _miles._

…Side-note: I drew a quick sketch of what I thought female-dressing Yami would look like? I'm rather miffed the two minute scrappiness is by far the best drawing I've done in a while. Two minutes vs. half an hour upwards, and the two minutes _wins. _(-woe-)


End file.
